Burda 10/2017 111, or a series of unfortunate events

Another bit of sewing from the burda magazine, not that you would know. The pattern is this no. 111 from the October issue, which is supposed to look like this, i.e. nothing like the thing I made.

Here is what happened.

Firstly, I decided to ditch the flouncey sleeves. They are everywhere just now, and I do like them, but I am also a pretty clumsy person, and I just know that I would get them trapped or hang them in some soup or something. I liked the two layer effect, and I’m always up for woven tops, so I decided to give it a shot without them.

The next thing was that I wanted to use stash fabric, and this viscose I got from a swap (I’m pretty sure it was Hazel‘s) seemed ideal. I quickly realised though that there wasn’t enough for sleeves, so I decided to ditch them too for a wearable toile.

So clearly, this was never really going to look that much like the pattern picture. But then things got worse. First of all, I sewed the two layers together the wrong way round, with the shorter layer underneath, taking away this top’s one distinguishing feature, and giving it a very elaborate lining instead. Then, when sewing together the armholes or the two layers, I put them together the wrong way round. I painstakingly unpicked it all (I’d already finished the edges) and tried again. This time, I did get it the right way round, only to discover that actually it didn’t work anyway, because it’s simply not possible to pull things through when so much is already sewn up. By this point the fabric was shredded to bits, but trimming down the inner layer and folding over the outer one worked ok and it looks decent enough.

So, a lot of effort for what is bascially a basic sleeveless boxy top (there is a button closure at the back, but I actually don’t need it), but I’m happy with it and will definitely wear it. I initially thought I had moved the darts too low when doing the FBA, but actually they’re pretty spot on. It’s all quite loose fitting, so the FBA wasn’t possibly completely neccessary, but its all good. If it’s gonna be loose fitting, it should be equally loose fitting everywhere!

Next time I’ll concentrate more to get the layers the right way round though, and sleeves will definitely be happening, because I like my arms covered. I’ll definitely be trying again, because after all that tracing and FBAing I really want to make it work. Not sure what fabric though, I don’t have anything in the stash that’s floaty enough.

Speaking of my arms covered, I deserve a medal for taking pictures of a sleeveless top in 2 degrees weather. Not many attempts at those I can tell you!

Hello! My name is Franca. This blog is a record of the good things in everyday life, my two boys and our weekend activities in and around Edinburgh and elsewhere; and my sewing, knitting and baking adventures. Also sometimes personal style photos, interiors, food, arts and design inspiration and anything I happen to be interested in at the time.